Umbrellas
by JennyKim319
Summary: Once close childhood friends, now strangers. What happens on a rainy day, when two people unexpectedly reunite. SxS. One-shot.


_A sweet, simple one-shot for all those Sakura x Syaoran lovers out there. Enjoy.  
_

_**DISCLAIMER: I do not own any rights to the Card Captor Sakura series. They belong to their respective owner(s).** _

* * *

She raised the umbrella over her head, the yellow contrasting with the gray rain clouds. Today was another day, the same thing every day of taking the subway, going to work, taking the subway back, then walking home. It was only four o'clock in the afternoon, but the sunshine was dimmed by the gray clouds.

Sakura was looking down at the ground while walking, not wanting to step on a puddle or anything that could ruin her shoes. In that mistake, she accidentally crashed into someone.

"Oomph!" Sakura gasped as she lost her grip on the plastic cane.

"I'm so sorry," she bowed and scrambled to pick up her umbrella, embarrassed that she had bumped into someone and not wanting to make eye contact right away.

"It's fine."

Sakura recognized that voice. A voice from long ago…

She looked up. It was him.

Syaoran.

* * *

He was going back home, finished with his university studies for the day. His friends invited him out to a group blind date, but he wasn't in the mood. Syaoran really wasn't the type of guy to pursue girls over his studies and training, especially since he had no interest in other girls.

He was anticipating getting home and taking a nap. Recently, he finished all his exams and it had been awhile since he's gotten a break from studying, his family, and life in general.

Sighing and gripping the umbrella in his hand, he only blinked when he felt a dull pain on his shoulder. Somebody had crashed into him.

"I'm so sorry," the girl said, ducking her head full of auburn hair while picking up her umbrella which was knocked down from the force of the bump.

"It's fine."

She looked up at him with wide emerald and he realized he knew her.

Sakura.

* * *

Sakura recognized his plain, navy blue umbrella. The same one since high shool. She remembered the time when it was pouring outside and she forgot to bring her umbrella. It was after school, the teacher had just finished his last lesson and students were heading out. She had sighed, not wanting to walk home in the rain.

"Ey, Sakura!" A voice called out to her.

She turned towards the voice and saw it was Syaoran.

"I'm assuming you forgot your umbrella?"

"Yeah, I guess I should have checked the weather before leaving the house today," Sakura scratched her head in embarrassment.

"It's okay, you can use mine," he put his hand out towards her, the unopened umbrella in his hand.

"No, it's okay. It's raining way too hard, I'd feel bad."

"Let me walk you home then."

"Syaoran, you live on the opposite side of town from me."

Syaoran started thinking, he didn't mind going in the rain without an umbrella but he knew Sakura would never accept his umbrella.

"Then let's walk together to a café or something and relax until the rain finally stops. That sounds okay, right?"

Sakura smiled. Whenever it rained, she would be in the mood for a nice, hot cup of tea.

"That sounds perfect." Side by side, they headed out of the classroom.

Syaoran got out his umbrella and motioned her to get under. Being so close to Syaoran, Sakura could feel her face heating up. Their elbows brushing against each other, sometimes their shoulders too. Sakura kept her eyes forward and tried not to look at Syaoran. She was too shy to want to let him see her red, blushing face.

A couple blocks later, they were inside a café. Closing his umbrella, Syaoran placed it in the bin by the doorway with the other umbrellas.

"Sit down first, I'll order for us." He headed toward the cashier.

"Wait, I want a-"

"I know, you want some Jasmine tea and maybe some kind of sweet pastry, right?"

"Ah…" Sakura was at a loss for words. Sure, they've been childhood friends for so long, but she never thought he'd pay that much attention to little details about her, like remembering her favorite tea.

Syaoran smiled. "Don't think I don't know my best friend," He winked at her.

Sakura sat in the chair, her hands clutching her skirt tightly as her face blazed up. Syaoran seemed to always have that effect on her. Always.

That day they sat and talked for hours and hours. They didn't even notice when people started dwindling out of the café, the sky getting darker, and that the rain had stopped hours earlier. In the bin by the doorway, the only umbrella left was the dark blue umbrella.

* * *

Syaoran could see the drips of water hanging by the end of her strands of hair, like little pearls in her hair. One drop from her bangs fell onto her cheek, and he felt a sense of déjà vu, remembering a memory once long forgotten.

It was their last year in high school, their last few months left together before graduation. Soon, they would be graduating and heading off to their respected universities, away from each other.

It was late at night but they found themselves at Penguin Park, a nostalgic memory of their childhood together playing on the jungle gym and sliding down the huge penguin slide. They sat on the swings, Sakura making marks with her shoe on the dust in the ground. She wouldn't look at him, her eyes watering up.

"Sakura, please don't cry."

"But soon we'll be heading off to university. Our universities are five hours away from each other. We'll probably barely see each other anymore. We'll probably be too busy with studying and stop contacting each other, and make new best friends, and-" Her voice choked up in the end.

Syaoran could only look sadly at her. He knew how much she studied, wanting to get accepted into the school he was applying to. It was no doubt to either of them that he could get in, but with Sakura and her average grades, he tried his best and tutored her in math and other subjects. Still, she failed to get accepted and Syaoran felt guilty for being the cause of her pain.

He felt a few drops of rain on his face and internally groaned. _Great, what a perfect time for the rain_. The rain suddenly started falling down harder and out of no where it started pouring within a few seconds of the first drop of rain.

Syaoran got up and was about to run under one of the slides but saw that Sakura hadn't moved. She was still sitting on the swing, her wet bangs covering her face as she stared at the ground.

"Come on Sakura," He grabbed her hand but she didn't move.

"I don't want us to drift apart," She whispered.

Syaoran froze at her words. Before he realized what he was doing, he pulled her away from the swing and pulled her to under the slide. His hands had grasped both sides of her face and he put his lips on top of hers. Simple, innocent, and sweet.

It only lasted a few seconds but it was enough for them. Still holding her face between his hands, he looked her in the eyes, "I promise we won't ever drift apart."

He'll never forget the emotions in her eyes, the mix of surprise, happiness, love, innocence. Although drenched with water, she still looked beautiful. Out of the rain, drops of water fell to the ground. He looked at her face and drops of water fell from her bangs to her face, from her eyes to her cheeks. He leaned in for another kiss, and she leaned in towards him too.

* * *

"Syaoran, I didn't think I'd see you here," Sakura gasped out, clutching her umbrella even tighter.

"Me either," Syaoran was just as surprised.

"Are things going well for you?" Sakura asked politely. It's been awhile since they last talked and it showed with the awkward silence between them.

Syaoran nodded in response to her question, not knowing what to say.

No matter how long and close you've gotten with somebody, they can so easily become a stranger.

"Well, I need to head to work now, so I'll be off," Sakura lied, not wanting to be there anymore. She was tired now.

"Wait," Syaoran grasped her hand. Sakura gasped silently.

"Where do you work at?" He asked.

"The café across the bridge, it's called _'The Sunflower'_."

"I'll visit you sometime. We should catch up, it really has been awhile," He let go of her hand.

Sakura could still feel the linger of his warmth left on her hand.

"Mhmm, I'd like that."

They parted ways. Headed back to their everyday schedules and lives before they had bumped into each other. Yet, Sakura could feel a smile on her face. It's been awhile since she felt this way.

* * *

_I found this one-shot on my computer and remembered I wrote this last year when I was taking a creative writing course. While I was listening to "Umbrella" by Epik High (a Korean hip-hop group), I was inspired to write something simple and short, yet conveying a lot of emotion without too many words. Well, I'm not sure if I succeeded in that aspect, but I hope you enjoy this short one-shot as much as I had writing it._


End file.
